For the first time since crews began work to revamp the wading pool outside city hall in August 2018, media were given a look at the project on Wednesday.
Crews were pouring the concrete to create the basin for the new wading pool.
It will be the same size as the old one and have sprinklers, but once filled, the water level will be about a foot lower than before.
Trees will be planted further back from the edge of the pool and the concrete tiles will be replaced with granite, which officials said last longer.
The water will be drained into a 250,000 litre tank every night to be treated, to meet new provincial health regulations.
The total cost of the project is $13.4 million—$3.6 million more than first thought.
“At the time the market was very hot, came in a little bit more than what we had estimated. Council approved an additional $3.6 million as you said in the July 11 council meeting,” said Eugene Gyorfi, program manager of the Civic Precinct with the City of Edmonton.
The city also said the pool is on track for completion by this summer.
“Here it’s over schedule slightly and it’s over budget,” Ward 11 Councillor Mike Nickel told CTV News on Tuesday.
According to a Jan. 2018 report, Nickel said the renovation was slated for completion by May 2019.
With the pool renovations and other construction projects happening in the area, the four main festivals that usually call Churchill Square home will relocate again this summer.
With files from Jeremy Thompson
